The oyster hatchery industry on the U.S. West Coast nearly collapsed when they were caught off guard by increasing acidity in the coastal waters. In Maine, an oyster grower is testing whether new NOAA-funded technology can prevent a repeat on the East Coast.

Providing more timely and accurate information over the western hemisphere, total lightning mapping, and higher resolution images streaming down from space more often, the new GOES satellite marks the first major redesign of the nation’s operational Earth-observing technology in more than 20 years.

Some of the chemicals that replaced ozone-harming CFCs are long-lived greenhouse gases. At NOAA's lab in Boulder, Colorado, chemist Steve Montzka leads the effort to monitor the concentration of CFC-substitutes and their potential impact on global warming.

In addition to its primary mission of observing space weather, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite is carrying two instruments that are important to climate science: the NISTAR radiometer and the EPIC camera.

A worldwide network of Argo floats gives scientists an unprecedented understanding of the ocean depths. Argo floats descend and ascend through the top 2,000 meters of the ocean, collecting observations as they move.

As sea level has changed, so has the way we measure it. Here’s a look at some of the technologies climate and marine scientists have used to track Earth’s tides and global sea level over the past two centuries.

Like a prehistoric fly trapped in amber during dinosaurs' days, airborne relics of Earth's earlier climate can end up trapped in glacial ice for eons. How do climate scientists turn those tiny relics into a story about Earth's ancient climate?

Although most drifting buoys start their journeys with a crude send-off—usually heaved into the ocean from the stern of a moving ship—NOAA oceanographer Rick Lumpkin describes today's drifter as "a high-tech message in a bottle." Insignificant on their own, but an army of drifters 1,000 strong patrols the world's oceans and records key data for climate monitoring and research.